I would like to share the story of my 12 year old cousin Britney who passed away of complications from cancer on January 11, 2014. The reason I am doing so is because her short life has inspired many who knew her and has helped strengthen my own Christian faith. We read many stories about the saints who lived long ago but never in my dreams did I actually think my own relative would personify saintliness. I share this because she has inspires me to be a better Christian and if it helps even one broken soul come back to Jesus Christ, then thanks be to the all loving God. I first came on this forum seeking prayers for her healing but now that she is in Heaven, I feel her story must be told.

Britney was born in December of 2002. When she was born, we noticed a strange bump near her eye that was diagnosed as a tumor. Most of her 12 years were spent with doctors, chemotherapy, tests, x-rays, etc, etc. Children at school would say things like, “that’s not real hair. It’s a wig!” One even said she did not want to be near her as to not “catch” the disease. Later on we found out, Britney never told her mom about the bulling even though it deeply hurt her (after all hair is very important to a girl) to her mom because she did not want her to hurt as well. Britney was the kind of kid who would give you the shirt of her back. I do not say this because she is my cousin but in all honesty, she had a heart of gold. I even had the honor to have her the flower girl at my wedding in Los Angeles back in 2009.

Near the end of her life is where things began to get supernatural. There was a particular day when her whole body was in severe pain since the cancer was everywhere on her body. Living in Egypt, doctors over there were not good with pain relief so she continued to suffer in agony for eight hours. Her mom and aunt at this point were screaming at God. All of a sudden she said Jesus and Mary were there. Her mom kept asking where and Britney kept saying “on the wall”. After that she slept peacefully as if there was no pain at all. Another time she told her mom she heard an echoing voice. She said it sounded strong like a water fall and yet it was gentle and kind. She said it told her,” I come to wipe away all tears from your eyes and turn it to happiness. If a mother forgets her nursing infant, I shall not forget you”.

Britney had always insisted she was going to live and told her mother this. Before losing the ability to speak completely, she had whispered she loved every member of our family name by name. On her death bed in the hospital, she kept pointing at someone in the room and smiling. Even though she couldn’t speak she kept pointing and smiling (trying to get her mom to see what she was seeing). At this point her mom “asked her are you leaving?” Britney nodded and hugged her parents. After that she motion with her arms as if flying and then passed on.

By the time her body arrived at her home town of Port Said, Egypt (the hospital was in Cairo), it was dark. Her family refused to bury her body in the dark so the Church allowed her body to spend the night in the Church. This Church in Port Said was famous for a portrait of the Holy Theotokos that seeps holy oil every year. The night Britney was in the church, the portrait started to seep for the first time in a year. The portrait seeped every year ever since the Holy Theotokos healed a sinful woman of breast cancer who later on became a nun. When the nun died last year (of natural causes not tied with the breast cancer from decades before) the portrait had stopped seeping.

On the week after the funeral, a Muslim woman came to my cousin and told Britney’s mom she had a vision of Britney with a man who looked much greater than a king. His very presence was majestic and extremely powerful).She said he was so illuminated by light she could not even see facial features. The woman said this man’s light illuminated Britney whom she said appeared to have long very beautiful flowing hair. She said Britney was in a garden unlike any garden you would see on earth. It looked vivid and soft unlike anything she has seen before. This woman said Britney was eating an apple. Britney told the woman that the apple was delicious and the woman was going to eat of an apple as this too just not now. Britney went on to tell the woman she had toys better than any of the toys on earth. When she had passed, her mom kept crying you’ve left your toys behind. Britney also said she met people she would have never thought she could ever meet. The woman who had this vision said she woke up with her eyes in pain from the magnitude of the light she had seen. She also starts to cry when she describes the man she saw with Britney. I myself had a dream of her last night. She was on a cloud and smiling. She motioned with her hand to her heart to tell me she loved me. I told this to her mom and she said on her hospital bed she motioned with her hand to her heart to say she loves me (she was told I wanted to fly out to see her). I hope you are able to understand everything I have described. I just need to pay tribute to the closest person to a saint I had seen. Britney’s journey has been a painful one but we are very blessed to have her in our family. Please pray that she appears to her mom soon because her mom yearns to see her. Many times we prayed for a miracle but in our case, God wanted to give us a little saint.

"This is the cross - to become dead to the whole world, to suffer sorrows, temptations and other passions of Christ; in bearing this cross with complete patience, we imitate Christ's passion and thus glorify our God the Father as His sons in grace and co-heirs of Christ." --St. Symeon the New Theologian

I'm at a loss for words, but I beg this little angel's prayers for all of us. Truly inspiring.

Logged

Worship is theology, so a church which brings Evangelical and Charismatic "praise & worship" into its corporate life is no longer Orthodox. It is, by definition, heterodox. Those "Orthodox" leaders who make theological arguments for the incorporation of heteropraxis into the life of the Church are heretics.